Amazon Partnered Carrier program
This article applies to selling in: United States

Amazon Partnered Carrier program

Amazon Partnered Carrier program options are available for small-parcel deliveries and less-than-truckload (LTL), intermodal, and full-truckload (FTL) shipments within the 48 contiguous states in the US. The program offers discounted rates for sending these shipments to FBA fulfillment centers. You can benefit from competitive rates that we've negotiated with partnered carriers and ensure fast transit times with carriers that have experience shipping to Amazon.

Use our simplified process in Seller Central to print labels and track deliveries for small-parcel shipments and get coverage for lost or damaged items for your shipments under the FBA inventory reimbursement policy. To use the Partnered Carrier program, select the option when you create the shipment in Seller Central.

  • Small-parcel deliveries consist of units that are packed in boxes, with each box individually labeled for delivery. Typically, these are smaller shipments that are sent via UPS.
  • LTL, intermodal, and FTL shipments combine individual boxes on pallets for delivery.

Note: LTL and FTL shipments that don’t use a partnered carrier require additional information from you for delivery appointments. For more information, go to Carrier requirements for delivering shipments.
Important: During shipment creation, make sure that you select the correct shipping method and ship-from address. Shipments that are sent via a different shipping method or multiple shipping methods or carriers may not get a delivery appointment or may be refused at pickup. An incorrect ship-from address may result in additional fees or missed pickup requests.

Dangerous goods cannot be shipped via partnered carriers. To learn more, go to Dangerous goods identification guide (hazmat).

For more information and commonly asked questions, go to Amazon Partnered Carrier program FAQ and the Partnered Carrier program guide.

Amazon-partnered carriers for small-parcel delivery

Eligible carriers offer deeply discounted rates. The cost is billed to your Seller Central disbursement account as an inbound transportation charge and will appear as a service fee in your Payments report 24 hours after you accept the charge. For shipments that weigh less than 1 lb, the minimum fee applies.

Once your shipment is confirmed and the transportation fee has been accepted, we'll provide you with a printable carrier tracking label, along with your FBA box ID label, to use with the partnered carrier. Before you generate the tracking label, be sure to review the details and check that all is correct. Accurate shipping details help to prevent carrier delays, shipment problems, and receiving errors.

Note: FBA box ID labels are required on all shipping boxes. Fulfillment centers use these to receive your shipment. For more information go to Shipping label requirements.

After completing your shipment, give your package to your regularly scheduled small-parcel pickup driver for your carrier or schedule a one-time pickup via UPS. You can also take the package to a carrier drop-off site.

Note: You must reach out to the carrier to schedule a pickup request. This may result in additional fees. UPS has regularly scheduled web-server maintenance every Sunday between 10 a.m. and noon Eastern Time. During this period, UPS labels may not be available for partnered-carrier shipments.

For more information, go to Small-parcel delivery to Amazon.

Billable weight and shipping-cost calculation

Billable weight is used to estimate the shipping cost. The billable weight will be either the dimensional weight or the physical shipment weight, whichever is greater.

  • Shipment weight is the actual weight of your shipment based on the weight per box.
  • Dimensional weight reflects package density based on the box dimensions that you provide, and is equal to the unit volume (length x width x height) divided by 139. For more information, go to Dimensional weight.

Note: Small-parcel packages cannot exceed 150 lb, 165 inches in length and girth combined, or 108 inches in length.

We estimate shipping cost based on the shipment packing information (box weights and dimensions) and the expected billable weight rounded up.

Note: You are responsible for providing accurate shipment information to calculate the price of your shipment. Inaccurate information will result in charged fee adjustments and may result in the blocking of future shipments.

Amazon-partnered carriers for LTL, FTL, and intermodal shipments

Partnered carriers offer discounted rates to eligible sellers. The cost is billed to your account as an inbound transportation charge and appears as a service fee in your Payments report. If your total shipment weighs more than 150 lb, consider using a partnered LTL or FTL carrier.

To use a partnered LTL or FTL carrier, you must meet the shipment requirements described below and have the following:

  • A forklift to place pallets on a truck
  • A dock to place pallets on a truck. See the dock requirements below.
  • The ability to accommodate a 53-foot trailer coming to your pickup address.

If your site can't accommodate a 53-foot trailer or meet the dock requirements, you can request the lift-gate service or a box truck as described below.

Note: LTL, FTL, and intermodal shipments using the Amazon Partnered Carrier program must be placed on pallets. Our partnered carriers will refuse shipments that are not on pallets, also known as floor-loaded shipments.

For more information, go to Carrier requirements for delivering shipments.

When you create your shipment in Seller Central, you must provide a contact email address and phone number. If there's an issue with picking up your shipment, this email address and phone number will be the first point of contact for resolving it.

Tip: We suggest using a group email for your contact. This ensures that multiple people are contacted and helps to prevent missed contact attempts.

To learn more about LTL and FTL deliveries with the Partnered Carrier program, watch this Seller University video:

Shipment requirements

Each shipment requires four-way-access wooden pallets that are 40 x 48 inches and GMA Standard B Grade or higher. Also provide the following information, ensuring that it’s accurate:

  • A freight-ready date. Pallets must be ready for pickup by 8 a.m. local time on that date or by the earliest operating hours for your pickup location.
  • A pallet count at the time you accept the shipping-cost estimate
  • A weight for each pallet
  • A height for each pallet
  • Whether or not your pallets are stackable
  • The freight class for the expected pallets

For more information, go to Seller requirements for LTL, FTL, and FCL deliveries.

Freight class

Freight class is a standardized classification system that determines the billable weight and risk of a shipment. Freight class is ranked from 50 to 500.

Make sure to provide accurate packaging information when creating a shipment. This information should match the physical weights and dimensions of your pallet and is used for your freight class estimate.

If you’re unsure of your shipment’s freight class, choose the Estimate my freight class option in step 4 of the Send to Amazon workflow when you enter your pallet information. We'll estimate the freight class based on the pallet information that you provide.

Note: You are responsible for providing accurate shipment information to calculate the price of your shipment. Inaccurate information will result in charged fee adjustments and may result in the blocking of future shipments.

For more information, go to Amazon Partnered Carrier freight class.

Dock requirements

Important: We value the safety of our partnered carriers and drivers, and we reserve the right to reject pickup in unsafe or inaccessible locations. This can include pickups along main roads, third-party storage locations, congested pickup locations, and areas that drivers may not be able to access easily or to dock or park without affecting local traffic or pedestrian safety.

To ensure safety, the following requirements must be maintained:

LTL lift-gate service and box truck request

If you don’t have a dock door or a forklift, you can still use the Amazon-partnered LTL service. To qualify for the service, your shipment must be under 12 pallets and weigh less than 20,000 lb.

To use the lift-gate service or request a box truck, follow these steps:

  1. In step 1 of the Send to Amazon workflow, click Ship from another address.
  2. Find the location for which you want to add or update your special-equipment needs and click Edit. (If adding a new address, click Add contact.)
  3. Click the Special instructions (equipment) tab.
  4. Select all equipment types that can be accommodated at your warehouse. If you need a box truck or box truck with lift gate, make sure that you select only those options and deselect the option for a 53-foot trailer.
  5. Click Save and Close.

We'll assign a carrier and create a bill of lading, which you'll receive via email and can access in Seller Central.

Warehouse operating hours

Operating hours are used to plan the time of pickup from your ship-from address. To provide operating hours, follow these steps:

  1. In step 1 of the Send to Amazon workflow, click Ship from another address.
  2. Find the location for which you want to add or update the operating hours. )If adding a new address click Add Contact.)
  3. Click the Operating hours tab.
  4. Provide the hours of operations under each day of the week that your site is open to schedule a pickup request or click the check box under Open 24 hours.
  5. Add time range allows for additional time frames during which your site is open each day.
  6. Click Save and Close.

Note: Providing inaccurate operating hours may result in pickup attempts outside your business hours and could lead to cancellation of your pickup requests.

Amazon Freight LTL shipping service

Amazon Freight offers pallet pickup within two days of booking and provides fast shipping at low rates. It’s available for pickup from select ZIP Codes for shipments to designated fulfillment centers across the country. For more information, go to Amazon Freight LTL shipping service.

Note: Shipments that are sent using Amazon Freight must have Amazon carrier pallet PRO labels on the outside of the pallets. These labels will be printed along with the required FBA pallet labels.

Scheduling a pickup

When you use the Partnered Carrier program service, we provide an estimated shipping fee and pickup date based on your shipment information, such as number of pallets, weight, and freight class. We also include the freight-ready date that you provide.

Note: Your actual shipping fees may exceed our estimate if the carrier determines that your pallets weigh more than you indicated or the freight class that you provided is incorrect, or both.

While booking your shipment, we'll select the lowest-cost carrier rate available at the earliest date possible. When you select a freight-ready date, we'll select the lowest cost carrier available on that particular day. To view and select other carrier options, click Change carrier.

Your pickup date will be planned for the freight-ready date that you selected. The scheduled pickup date, including any updates, will be shown in the Shipping Queue and in your shipments’ summary pages. The carrier assigned to your shipment will appear in the Tracking details step of Send to Amazon as well as on your bill of lading.

Note: Freight-ready dates are dependent on carrier and network capacity. “Gray” dates indicate a lack of capacity for a given date.

If you think your freight won't be ready before we attempt to pick it up, you can update the freight-ready date until 5 p.m. local time the day before the pickup date. To update your shipment’s freight-ready date, follow these steps:


  1. Open the Shipment summary page of the shipment that you’d like to update.
  2. Click the Shipment events tab.
  3. Under the Picked up section, click Change freight-ready date.
  4. Select the new freight-ready date for your shipment and select a reason from the drop-down menu.
  5. Click Update freight-ready date.
Important: Cancel any workflows containing shipments that won't be ready in the foreseeable future and re-create the shipments after they are ready. Shipments that aren't ready by the provided freight-ready date may be delayed, rescheduled, or charged additional carrier fees. If freight isn't ready after multiple failed attempts, your pickup request will be canceled.

Preparing for pickup

Shipments should be palletized, properly stretch-wrapped, labeled, and staged at your pickup location with bills of lading printed from Seller Central via the Track shipment tab or from the email sent to the address that you provided.

Your dock yard should be free of all debris. The carrier needs enough space to back in and dock a 53-foot trailer or, if selected, a box truck. If a lift gate is needed, make sure the box truck has enough space to park and load freight.

Note: Make sure that you provide the correct shipment to the assigned carrier. Not doing so may result in additional fees, receiving errors, delays, or rejected freight.

If you discuss your pickup details with the carrier, refer to your shipment by the Amazon reference number on your bill of lading. The reference number is different from your FBA shipment ID and is required for pickup and delivery requests.

Note: Shipments with more than 12 pallets will be rolled into an FTL shipment, which may be more cost-effective and have better transit times than an LTL shipment. FTL shipments may require more lead time because carriers must schedule delivery at the fulfillment center before they can pick up your shipment. This may result in a delayed pickup date.

Executing a pickup

You are responsible for ensuring that your shipments are loaded onto the truck in full. Drivers are not required to load shipments on behalf of shippers.

Once the driver is docked, give the driver the bill of lading and begin loading the corresponding shipments. Both your warehouse clerk and the driver will sign the bill of lading after they have confirmed that it matches the shipment pallets that were loaded on the truck. Be sure to keep a copy of the signed bill of lading.

Note: If you're sending a full truckload, a seal number must be added to your bill of lading. For more information, go to Seller requirements for LTL, FTL and FCL deliveries.

Handling a missed pickup

In some instances, the carrier may not be able to pick up your shipment on the estimated pickup date. If that occurs, check the Shipping Queue or your shipment’s Summary tab to view the new pickup date. If no new pickup date is available, contact the carrier directly.

If you're unable to solve an issue with a missed pickup, submit a carrier missed pickup request. Mention that your issue relates to "Partnered carrier delayed shipment pickup assistance." Provide the shipment ID, assigned carrier, estimated pickup date, and Amazon reference number from your shipment’s bill of lading.

Canceling and refunding an unused shipment

For information on how to cancel a shipment using the Send to Amazon workflow, go to Send to Amazon: Change or cancel your shipment.

Your account won't be billed if you cancel the shipment within the following time frames:

  • Small-parcel shipments: 24 hours after accepting charges
  • LTL or FTL shipments: One hour after accepting charges

Important: If the cancellation time expires, the cost is billed to your account as an inbound transportation charge and appears as a service fee in your Payments report.

To request a refund, cancel the shipment, verify that you've been charged for the shipment, and contact Selling Partner Support.

To verify that you've been charged, see whether there's an inbound transportation charge transaction in your Payments report with a fee amount that matches the Amazon partnered-carrier cost amount shown on the summary page for your shipment.

You may have multiple partnered-carrier shipments with the same Amazon partnered-carrier cost amounts. When this occurs, verify that the creation time stamp of the shipment that you canceled is either 24 hours or one hour in advance of the transaction time stamp, depending on the shipping mode.

Partnered carrier options via the Selling Partner API

Amazon’s Selling Partner API includes partnered carrier options. For more information, go to Selling Partner API overview.

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